'Emmerdale' thrashes 'EastEnders' in Thursday ratings clash

Emmerdale thumped EastEnders by a margin of two million viewers in last night's soap ratings.

Thursday's hour-long edition of the rural serial, focusing on the popular love triangle between Cameron, Chas and Debbie, attracted 7.05m (31.7%) at 7pm and 120,000 an hour later.

EastEnders could only muster 5.05m (21.8%) despite the high-profile nature of Christian and Syed's departure episode, shedding 2m week-on-week and the lowest figure for the BBC serial in recent memory.

When the two shows went head-to-head between 7.30pm and 8pm, Emmerdale unprecedentedly retained its entire audience, never dropping below 7m.

Emmerdale, which has been on fine form since its special 40th anniversary week, has never beaten EastEnders by a bigger margin - when the they clashed in July earlier this year, Emmerdale only came out on top by a tiny amount.

However, BBC Three's 10.30pm repeat took 721k (6.5%), and many more will have caught up using Sky+ and BBC iPlayer.

Coronation Street's one-off Thursday outing, an amusing visit to Weatherfield which saw Steve McDonald lock love rival Rob in the back of his own lorry, topped the night with 8.07m (33.1%) at 8pm and 262k on ITV1 +1.

Really low rating for Eastenders. Why is Eastenders rating low these days, even the episodes which dont clash against Emmerdale cant rate over 8million. Why have so many people stopped watching it?

It's a little worrying at how low Eastenders is being rated in recent months, It's been many of years since I''ve seen the figures be constantly lower than normal, I do think that Emmerdale is brilliant at the moment and I've started watching again since the live episode so it's gave the show a boost. I think Eastenders has been quite awful in recent months. I'm a huge fan of the show and hope that they can pull it all together soon

Eastenders is diabolical, i started watching emmerdale about a year ago as i was starting to get annoyed with eastenders and im so glad i did! Emmerdale is miles better as is Hollyoaks and even Corrie, which is in a bad shape itself. I nearly switched off for good during Kat shagger but ill wait to see what christmas is like.
Nothing major even happened in emmerdale last night and it still battered eastenders!
Wouldnt be surprised if Hollyoaks first look beat the bbc3 repeat as well as nearly a million watched on e4 the other day

Eastenders is diabolical, i started watching emmerdale about a year ago as i was starting to get annoyed with eastenders and im so glad i did! Emmerdale is miles better as is Hollyoaks and even Corrie, which is in a bad shape itself. I nearly switched off for good during Kat shagger but ill wait to see what christmas is like.
Nothing major even happened in emmerdale last night and it still battered eastenders!
Wouldnt be surprised if Hollyoaks first look beat the bbc3 repeat as well as nearly a million watched on e4 the other day

BUT Emmerdale had that 30mins lead....BBC3 repeat startes at alater time of 11pm (On a school/work night too) Its figure is up on normal though. EastEnders will timeshift quite well tho when the 7:27-7:57 Start time and recordings are taken into account

BUT Emmerdale had that 30mins lead....BBC3 repeat startes at alater time of 11pm (On a school/work night too) Its figure is up on normal though. EastEnders will timeshift quite well tho when the 7:27-7:57 Start time and recordings are taken into account

Its awful and the figures are reflecting that, do you work for the bbc? Is this damage control?

Had EastEnders just fell to 5m fair enough but it has a reason. On Monday we will see EastEnders back up above Emmerdale. We have seen this all before....Dozens of times

Dan, I dont mean this ina nasty way, or with any harm or offence meant, but will you please give it a rest? Stop repeating yourself post after post after post! We get that you think EE will be back on top on Monday. Just calm down yeah?

Dan, I dont mean this ina nasty way, or with any harm or offence meant, but will you please give it a rest? Stop repeating yourself post after post after post! We get that you think EE will be back on top on Monday. Just calm down yeah?

Thank you for putting this much more gently than I would.

I steer clear of all the anti-EastEnders arguing but the constant repetition of 'apologist' comments has really started to become unbearable over the past couple of days, not just in this thread but in others that I've read too.

Dan, I dont mean this ina nasty way, or with any harm or offence meant, but will you please give it a rest? Stop repeating yourself post after post after post! We get that you think EE will be back on top on Monday. Just calm down yeah?

I could do with a Coffee actually. Im just trying to prove a point though. That its nothing new,it wasnt out of the blue and things will return normal Come Monday. I wonder if a Emmerdale or Corrie hits 5million thread will be started tomorrow due to CIN clash?

I could do with a Coffee actually. Im just trying to prove a point though. That its nothing new,it wasnt out of the blue and things will return normal Come Monday. I wonder if a Emmerdale or Corrie hits 5million thread will be started tomorrow due to CIN clash?

We know ... if you actually stopped and read what Melephunk said we all know that you are trying to make a point ... and that in itself was Melephunk's point ... too many points.